Observations From the University of Florida Fort Lauderdale Trial Garden

 

The University of Florida trial garden at the Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center began in 2002 to develop unbiased evaluations of vegetatively propagated annual bedding plant cutlivars.  Now in its eighth year, we have trialed species for Ball, Fischer/Goldsmith, Danziger, Fides, Henry F Michell Co., and Euro American Proven Winners.  Originally, the garden started by trialing geranium and New Guinea impatiens cutlivars but has grown to include a wide variety of plant material.   In addition to monitoring plant growth and performance, each year a consumer preference survey is conducted where participants are asked to selected all cultivars that they like.  These selections are ranked using Proc Rank in SAS and then the rankings are analyzed using ANOVA.   Those cultivars that were highly ranked also grew better in the garden.  Over the past seven years we have trialed 55 different genera in 20 different families.  In general, plants in the Asteraceae performed very well while plants in the Scrophulariaceae did not perform well.